EDITORIAL

Hope on jobs

Thorny patches still exist in rosy economic outlook

12/11/2013

The latest Labor Department report shows that the U.S. economy created 203,000 jobs last month and the unemployment rate dropped to 7 percent — a five-year low. But there were also dark patches in the generally rosy economic picture.

Holiday sales did not go as well as retailers had hoped. The job market is still not bright for new job-seekers, and is especially glum for the nation’s 4 million long-term unemployed workers.

In his speech on economic mobility last week, President Obama spoke of workers’ desire for greater opportunity and higher income. But growing income inequality, which serves the rich and hurts the poor, destroys the hopes of many average Americans for upward mobility. More, better-paying jobs represent the first step toward restoring those dreams.